


light's gay

by ruruka



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 08:57:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17546600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruruka/pseuds/ruruka





	light's gay

light doesn’t have much to say. that’s how his mother knows something is wrong.

“no, thank you. i’m not hungry,” is mist down the staircase to her call up it. the walls sing a honey reflect back from their lamps’ breath. it’s evening, by now, where the lamps are honey and the skyline is brass, and sachiko’s shadow traipses at the bottom of the stairs as she keeps a keen, thinned stare up ahead. he’s said no to dinner, he’s said no, he’s eighteen years old and she’s to not baby him any longer, right, but it’s just still so that he’s her little baby boy with pinchable cheeks and a sweet angel face behind that certainly never skips dinner unless trouble pins down his wrists.

a step lifts to the bottommost stair, lingers there a moment, then retracts to spin her back toward the kitchen.

“he says he isn’t hungry,” sachiko relays. bowls line the counter, and it is with hesitation that she moves to lift the fourth one back to the cabinet, though shuffling stirs behind her enough to warrant a glance. to the dining table top, this morning’s paper is folded back, headlines of embezzlement and hand to hand, leaves the light to reflect off of souichirou’s glasses in a look toward her. “that isn’t like light,” is his murmured comment, an eye to scan over toward the living room where the sofa’s home to sayu’s swinging legs as she types at laser speed to her flipped up cell phone; the tv mumbles more idle news that he’s already been investigating for a week now, all pointless, glancing over again toward his wife just in time for her to shrug with a ladle in her left hand. broth collects to the rounded metal enough to drip just as she turns to dip it into the pot again. souichirou rises from his seat, one swift lift.

“light, come down and have dinner.” his weight rests to one leg. an echo claims his voice once no reciprocation flips. “light. this isn’t negotiable. don’t be disrespectful to your mother.”

though he’s stern, never does he shout or poke for fear, allows even a close minute before color peeks from the top of the darkened staircase, the creak of a door just enough to slip himself. the equality of their tensions lock together. in one ease of the eyes, souichirou nods to him.

“sorry, i’ve been so caught up with this paper i’ve been writing.” socks pad against the kitchen tile, one hand reaching for his chair with the close of his eyes, a sigh, a pull. “i haven’t really thought much about anything else.”

light sits in his usual space, sayu placed now right beside him and poised perfectly to grin around, “are you sure you weren’t too busy daydreaming about your _giiirlfrieeend?_ ”

still in her cheer she sits, the antithesis perched beside her with a cheek in one palm. a peer forward tips her head to one side with a pulled pout. “hey, come on, light, i’m just teasing. if i had a boyfriend as pretty as misa misa, i’d think about him all the time, too.”

a bowl of curry sets before their father, another in time placed for light who merely drops a gaze toward it. “it’s alright, the start of university is a stressful time. how are your courses going? has everyone been nice to you?”

“sachiko...i don’t think that’s a big concern for a college student…” two fingers press his frames higher. she waves him off with a tut, goes to fetch the other bowls.

from a side a rounded spoon lifts. it gardens through his pile of rice, face still supported on one perched elbow. “everything’s fine, mom.”

something of his lips trembling the way they do a brief fleeting second does not go missed by any other at the table, the way sachiko sits with a smooth beneath and glances woe toward her husband who rests in it equal. sayu tilts her spoon about her bowl, mixing rice and broth absently as she too tastes the stress of the halo glow evening.

into one hand souichirou’s throat is cleared. he sips from his cup the serving of cooled black tea, eyes over the rim to examine his son’s downcast stare. pick, pick. haze traces light’s face. sachiko pads a palm to her cheek.

“light,” begins his father as his mug clicks back down. “is something going on? if you’re distraught over the investigation, you can take as much time away as you need.”

pressure mounts in all his muscles, though he remains austere in his placid exterior. his expression tightens at the corners. “no, it isn’t that. to be honest...i have had something on my mind lately.” and all at once, where his spoon has raked it rests, a clink to the porcelain of his bowl, taken instead for gripping every finger into a touch for their palm heel. his second hand drops to mimic. his back is straight, gaze upon his parents direct center, both of them rigid the same for worry’s sake to guide their faces a stony tender. his sister sits beside him, just as ever, bated throat to watch him onward.

“dad...mom,” and his pupils address them each. a breath is caught in his lungs that refuse lax now. far from. silent and echoing all the same. “...i think i’m gay.”

it’s evening by now and it’s quiet across the table, a squared out four that know no speech but the color of devotion. the breathless feeling that life holds at the chest.

sachiko, for all his build up, smiles at him. “that’s wonderful, sweetheart,” she chimes with a lift of her spoon. “i was wondering when you’d tell us.”

“...wondering?” he does not think to pinch his eyes from their wide circles, for his heart still pounds now, a hammer, a record pin hooked on the same old key.

“hey, you know, maybe mom’s right.” a finger pats sayu’s mouth, focus trailing up to the kitchen ceiling. “it does seem kinda weird that you brought a girl up to your bedroom so many times and all i ever heard through the door was _talking.”_

light hasn’t the time to quell the flush of his nape, battling attention back between his sister and now his mother again who’s tapping forth, after a swallow of rice, “oh, misa knows, doesn’t she dear? you should let her down gently if she hasn’t figured it out on her own yet.”

“she...i...f- figured it out yet?!”

“i’m sorry, light, i don’t mean to sound insensitive,” sachiko bows her head forward one short notch, back up to counter, “i’ve just got a mother’s intuition, is all.”

“and you iron your socks.”

“ _sayu_ ,” scolds their mother, though light’s deaf very practically to it with what a rush of fire has coated his nerve endings, over and over unknowing where he stands here without a lick of life from his father’s lowered stare across the dinner table. nighttime rests on his jaw. light swallows. certainly, it’ll be his fall here. but only, instead, it’s a silken summertime.

“light, my son, i couldn’t be more proud.” souichirou’s lifted his head and he’s beaming now, gold reflecting off the wet of his eyes. “i may not have ever expected this from you, but that doesn’t change a thing. you know, i never thought much about that type of lifestyle, but i found out recently that ryuzaki is gay as well, and it truly opened my eyes. there’s no reason anyone should be seen differently for the way they express their love.”

really, light’s just embarrassed now. but far be it from him to ever shut down the vim in his father’s tone, the way he raises his chin high and allows his smile to loiter after closing time. despite the hearth laps along his skin, light is able to wobble a nod toward him. “ah, wow, thanks dad.” and he shakes his head, “wait...ryuzaki?”

“if you’d like, i could let him know you’re not seeing anyone at the moment-”

“ _that’s_ really alright, dad. really.” disgust clenches his teeth together. again, a nodding from souichirou, who simpers a sheepish melody of his own self-conscious. “you’re right. i’ve gotten ahead of myself. though, it wouldn’t be such a terrible thing to have ryuzaki for a son-in-law-”

“ _dad.”_ he could just about bury himself to six feet. what’s on his mind should perhaps stay there next time, if this much heat’s to paint his face each round.

but...sayu’s laughing the littlest bit, and his parents still wear the unfaze of their joy and pride, and his mother’s made curry rice and he’d better get going and eat it before it’s a waste. a bite fills his mouth. he’s home again where there’s no harm.

“we should have ice cream after dinner to celebrate!” sayu says from beside him. “well, i guess there’s nothing to really celebrate, but it seems like a good time for ice cream, you know? my brother likes boys!”

there’s no harm, yet ounces upon pints of embarrassment’s shivers.

yet never could he better sip upon solicitude.


End file.
